Thanks so much to everybody who has donated so far, and I’ve had plenty of offers of help too – the past few days has been wonderful for meeting interesting people doing amazing work in various fields of openness. Also things are ticking along with the crowdfunding, we’re almost at $5K, and I’m currently backing up all important documents and photos etc for the big switch to Linux on the 1st of August. 2 days to go til the project kicks off! Anyone who donates over $25 to the project gets themself a digital download of the calendar, and $60 or more will get you a real paper version to stroke lovingly!

A couple more interviews this week: here’s one with Kay Alexander on EDUKWEST. EDUKWEST is an educational partner of IndieGoGo and they’ve chosen Year of Open Source as a campaign worth supporting, so now you’ll see a little ‘PARTNER’ tag for EDUKWEST on my IndieGoGo page.

Also, if you were in New Zealand and you and the family were gathered around the wireless on Saturday, you may have heard me on This Way Up on Radio NZ. I may be back on later on in the year, talking about, amongst other things, my snuggly successes or blistery failures in creating open source socks.

Every supporter will receive a recipe for their own Copyleft cookies to make and share with friends!

Not everybody’s a multi-millionaire, and now you don’t even need $10 to contribute. If you like the project and feel like contributing, whether you contribute $1, $5, or $1000, every supporter, included those who have already donated, will receive a recipe for Copyleft cookies to make at home. (I can personally attest to their buttery, chocolaty deliciousness). And if you’re feeling greedy, just rotate them to create copyright cookies, and eat them all yourself.

mine. hands off.

Feeling peckish? head over to IndieGoGo, check out how the campaign’s going and give a dollar to a crunchy, sweet, chocolate-studded cause.

One of the key people behind the Firefox web browser, and a board member of the Open Source Applications Foundation, she has been one of the strongest advocates for widespread adoption of open source software. To find out more, check out this interview for Wired!

On August 1st, Berlin-based filmmaker Sam Muirhead is abandoning all copyrighted products and switching to Open Source software, hardware, and services for one year, as the subject of his own series of online documentary videos.

Sam Muirhead aims to raise awareness of open source projects and methods, and get people from outside the tech world interested and involved in Open Source.

“As someone without a background in high-tech, I want to show people that Open Source is not just for hackers – it is an idea that can be adapted to any aspect of life.”

The internet has changed the film world immensely, and created new means of funding, production and distribution. Utilising these new methods, Muirhead is exploring another big idea from the internet, Open Source, and its growing effect on the ‘real’ world.

Open Source originated in the world of software, with the Firefox web browser, Linux operating system, and much of the underlying structure of the Internet itself being collaboratively developed and released under Open Source licenses. But Muirhead is interested in the philosophy of Open Source – as an alternative to the traditional use of copyright and patents, it gives access to the plans and design used to make a product. This means users can adapt the product to their own personal needs or redistribute it. The idea has already spread from software to other areas, from Wikipedia to robotics to tractor design.

Technology’s rapid pace of development means a traditional long-form film about Open Source is impossible – by the time it is edited, it will be out of date.

Muirhead will be taking the software development approach of ‘release early, release often’ to documentary making. With new videos and projects to be released every week, the result will be an evolving portrait of Open Source, and will enable the community to get involved in the project as it progresses.

The project is funded by and made for the online community, with an active campaign on crowdfunding website IndieGoGo hoping to raise $20000 in donations in just 37 days.

Muirhead will make his own Open Source shoes, jeans, toothbrush and furniture (and release the designs for others). He’ll be using Open Source educational methods to learn Turkish, avoiding food grown from copyrighted seed strains, and abandoning Apple software.

When asked what he hoped to achieve by only using Open Source solutions for everything in his life, Muirhead stated, “Open source is a fascinating way of collaborating, of creating, and working together for common goals, but it’s seen by most as something only relevant to software. By bringing it into ‘real life’ and adapting it to everyday purposes, I hope to get people thinking about how Open Source could work in their lives.”

Muirhead suggests there’s a journalistic approach too: “I want to highlight the problems of the current copyright and patent system. Every week you see Apple, Samsung and Google throwing million-dollar lawsuits at each other, when technologically they all have shared goals. Whereas in the Open Source community there’s the adage that competitors stand on each others’ shoulders, not on each others’ toes.” The project will be highlighting the achievements and methods of companies and individuals working with Open Source, and discussing their different business models.

As well as running workshops to develop Open Source solutions, Muirhead will also be speaking on the Open Source & Free Software stage at the 10000-strong Campus Party tech conference in Berlin in August.

[UPDATE] The IndieGoGo campaign has come to an end, and thanks to generosity of 134 lovely people, we raised $6,731!

That’s enough for me to be able to focus on this project for the year, pay for plenty of materials required, and I don’t have to spend as much time working on other jobs. I’ll send out the Copyleft Cookies recipe and an update email in the next couple of days, and the other perks will follow in the next couple of weeks. Thank you so much to all who helped out, and if you like you can see who all these wonderful supporters were.

What is the Year of Open Source?

From August 2012, I’m trying to live Open Source for a year – avoiding traditionally copyrighted products, using products released under open licenses, or adapting or developing my own.

I plan to use myself as a subject in an experiment to canvas the range of open source ideas and products, search out and discuss ways around traditional licensing, and see how the ideas of free software, libre hardware and openness can affect different areas of everyday life.
In every aspect of my life, from the clothes I wear to the film equipment and appliances I use, I will be looking for and switching to open source alternatives, in hardware, software and services, documenting everything in order to show as many people as possible the many directions and applications of this way of thinking.

If you missed the crowdfunding campaign but would still like to contribute, please consider a small donation through Flattr ↓